| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| mala |
Posted - 02/20/2010 : 18:16:37
It would seem that Fear & Conditioning are the 2 main stumbling blocks really for most people with Tms.I know they are for me.
Fear that the pain will never go away
Fear that the pain will get worse
Fear that the body will never quite recover or be as healthy as before
We are also conditioned to believe the above & much more.
It is very hard to believe that all this searing, burning, debilitating pain which is causing me to limp around in agony will all go one day and not leave any trace.
And I need to believe.
So pls can those who have had success or relief please give actual situations/ examples of how they have overcome their fear & conditioning patterns successfully.
I'm not asking for generalizations but specific, personal, actual, 'it happened to me coz this is what I did' situations.
Good Luck & Good Health
Mala |
| 20 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Teddybear |
Posted - 03/03/2010 : 02:16:19
I posted this some time ago. I think you will find this useful, since both fear and conditioning are your stumbling blocks as well. In my post, I elaborated on several specific and personal situations regarding how I overcame my fear and conditioning patterns successfully. I am looking forward to your reply.
''
Hey dtes87,
Relentlessly playing videogames is exactly what I did, after learning about tms. That, I assure you, contributed to my recovery immensely! I reconditioned myself by facing what a feared most: using my hands for an activity as strenuous and repetitive as gaming.
I urge you to believe me when I say that - after clearing healing back pain in one sitting one evening, approximately a year ago, I grabbed my nintendo ds the very next day, and started playing, intensively, relentlessly and excessively. It was my way of resuming the (physical) activities I had put on hold out of fear - not necessity - of the RSI. Since I could do everything I wanted to – it was but a dull pain, it was the fear that debilitated me - but I chose not to, so as to not aggravate my arms.
I have to admit that I was not fearless from the very beginning. I had conditioned myself to the point where not a minute would pass without me scanning and analyzing everything that could potentially aggravate my RSI. As a matter of fact, I monitored my pain levels constantly. When I assessed my condition however - after spending hours upon hours bombarding enemy tanks, gaining levels successively, scrolling through endless walls of text, and catching the occasional pokémon - I fortunately did not notice any sign of deterioration whatsoever. I was pleasantly surprised to say the least. I was really relieved.
Needless to say, I didn't time my irresponsible gaming behaviour. Moreover, nearly a year passed since then, and the initial novelty has gone. Still, I vividly recall making excessive use of both my computer and my handheld relentlessly the following days and weeks.
Back then, I spent more and more time playing videogames, typing, writing, scrolling and clicking, everything with increasingly less inhibition. And the fear that enveloped me decreased. *In that order.*
10 months ago, I thought with dread of the years to come. As a matter of fact, I pictured myself carrying this burden for the rest of my life. To be honest, I was consumed by fear. In hindsight, it was the prospect of being handicapped by RSI permanently that debilitated me. Not so much the physical pain I felt. It was but a dull pain. However, the fear that it emanated was what truly suffocated me.
Simultaneously, I felt my life had just begun, yet it was already soiled by this sordid disease. I was really depressed and disappointed every single time I woke up in the morning, only to discover that the pain had neither decreased, let alone vanished. Since you are extremely young as well, I am certain that you can relate to my anxiety.
Lately, I haven't really thought about where I once was, and how far I've come.
Thank you, dtest87, for reminding me of how grateful I should be for being pain free.
I hope my story can give you relief, however small, whether you have tms or not.''
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| catspine |
Posted - 02/28/2010 : 00:55:35
Mala
I'm thinking that the reason the pain is more intense at night is because that's when nothing else is distracting you like it may be the case during the day and you can focus on the pain again. If your nervous system is overloaded by the pain already the first thing it will do in it's own way is remind you of the issues that have to be dealt with first and you're back top square one until you start your day again.
Again I may be wrong but maybe you can make use of that thought.
Also did you have fear of darkness when you were a kid and forgot about it? A simple test would be to fall asleep with a light on and compare what happens. For more accuracy the test must be repeated a few times.
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| mala |
Posted - 02/24/2010 : 20:43:17
So I continue to journal. I even wrote a couple of letters to people in my past. The pain is really bad. It seems like the knee and back pain are kind of connected. When one is hurting so is the other. I found it hard to walk yesterday.
I have noticed one thing. Since I have been in Bangkok i have been wearing very flat sandals and i keep feeling not quite right when I walk. I know Sarno says that footwear has nothing to do with it but I think a little bit of a heel on a shoe is more comfortable. Has anyone felt that?
The pain is very bad and gets to me especially at night. I feel like all the ligaments down my left side from my neck to ribs, back, hip, inner thigh, knee, calf are all inflamed & stiff & pulling. When I move I can hear the ligaments in my back snap.
I am leaving today to go back home to HK and just packing the suitcase was an effort in itself. Thank God the flight is only 2 & 1/2 hrs.
A couple of days ago I got a call from a friend who wanted to invite us to The Annual Welsh ball on Saturday. My initial inclination was to say No but then I thought that would be giving in so I accepted. I actually went to buy something nice to wear yesterday but there was no joy in the process. I just wanted to find something and be done whereas not too long ago it would have been a fun thing to do. So I have got myself a new dress & I will wear high heels even if it kills me. Now there's something to look forward to. 
Good Luck & Good Health
Mala |
| catspine |
Posted - 02/23/2010 : 01:28:40
Quote from Mala
quote:
Also I think it is easier to be philosophical when you are not in pain.
It depends Mala, if it is easier for you do it that way, go for it because you're still lucky and it would me a mistake not to but for me it was the opposite .
Sometimes it is when there is nothing more to loose than one starts to listen to the obvious. In fact when my back was at its worst and I had no solution in sight that's when I let go thinking: that's it! end of the road !...at best I'll be in a wheel chair for life and at the mercy of everything else and then out of the blue I discovered that there was a different reason I never heard of as the real cause of my problems like repressed emotions and how the brain plays tricks on us and from then on everything was easy and better than it ever was. I never had several options it was black or white so the choice was fast to make and it also made a lot of sense so there was no hesitating.
I never had to dig into my unconscious to find what it was that was repressed I still don't know , just to know that the reason for the pain was psychological was enough to destroy any previous doubt and time did the rest mostly. When the symptom imperative showed up a year later it was much harder to identify them as such they were so well camouflaged under the onset of the TB and a serious staph infection due to a spider bite that the real reason for all the inexplicable symptoms went unnoticed for months and those were proliferating dangerously and wreaking havoc with my body . Only time and observation and questioning my bodily memory made me aware of what was going on and only then was I able to make progress.
I think it is important to know how your body gives way to TMS and recovers from it : how much pressure you can take and when and what the nature of it is and how you manage to improve when you do. what triggers it or not what you read or dream about what you can smell or feel how your vision gets better or worse. What your physical/mental condition is (tired worried, energized, hot, cold, dehydrated, doubtful, faithful, angry relaxed etc) If there is one thing TMS does for you very well is to develop your senses to an extreme level and you must constantly be aware of that because it also uses it to piggyback and start symptoms as well as it can help you detect something 's wrong before it even starts. How you handle the information will determine the outcome.
It is really a condition that if it doesn't break you it will make you stronger. Either way will change your life.
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| catspine |
Posted - 02/23/2010 : 01:09:47
Quote from Mala
quote:
Also I think it is easier to be philosophical when you are not in pain.
It depends Mala, if it is easier for you do it that way, go for it because you're still lucky and it would me a mistake not to but for me it was the opposite .
Sometimes it is when there is nothing more to lose than one starts to listen to the obvious. In fact when my back was at its worse and I had no solution in sight that's when I let go thinking that's it! end of the road !...at best I'll be in a wheel chair for life and at the mercy of everything else and then out of the blue I discovered that there was a different reason I never heard of as the real cause of my problems like repressed emotions and how the brain plays tricks on you and from then on everything was easy and better than it ever was.I never had a choice it was black or white so the choice was fast to make .
I never had to dig into my unconscious to find what it was that was repressed I still don't know , just to know that the reason for the pain was psychological was enough to destroy any previous doubt and time did the rest mostly. When the symptom imperative showed up a year later it was much harder to identify them as such they were so well camouflaged under the onset of the TB and a serious staph infection due to a spider bite that the real reason for all the inexplicable symptoms went unnoticed for months and those were proliferating dangerously and wreaking havoc with my body . Only time and observation and questioning my bodily memory made me aware of what was going on and only then was I able to make progress.
I think it is important to know how your body gives way to TMS and recovers from it : how much pressure you can take and when and what the nature of it is and how you manage to improve when you do. what triggers it or not what you read or dream about what you can smell or feel how your vision gets better or worse. What your physical/mental condition is (tired worried, energized, hot, cold, dehydrated, doubtful, faithful, angry relaxed etc) If there is one thing TMS does for you very well is to develop your senses to an extreme level and you must constantly be aware of that because it also uses it to piggyback and start symptoms as well as it can help you detect something 's wrong before it even starts. How you handle the information will determine the outcome.
It is really a condition that if it doesn't break you it will make you stronger. Either way will change your life.
|
| HellNY |
Posted - 02/22/2010 : 19:07:09
Skizzik give me a call sometime. |
| mala |
Posted - 02/22/2010 : 18:18:36
OK all I asked for were real egs of how people overcame their conditioning and fear. That was a fair request I think and many thanks to those who did & also thanks to those who didn't but still responded.
I understand that everyone is trying to help but I also feel that dwelling on semantics isn't helping me. I get what you are trying to tell me but at this stage I feel that I have to give it my everything. Time to let go will come later when I am ready to let go just like you guys knew when it was time to let go. We each go at our own pace.
Right now I am journaling, thinking about what's bothering me and trying to get back into the original way of believing that there is nothing physically wrong.Just because I post here about it doesn't mean I spend every waking moment dwelling on it but I do remember reading in HBP that you do have to believe and you do have to throw yourself into it with the reading and especially the journaling. In fact I believe that Dr Schubiner's course require a couple of hours of reflecting & journaling each day.
Also I think it is easier to be philosophical when you are not in pain.
Good Luck & Good Health
Mala |
| marsha |
Posted - 02/22/2010 : 18:05:37
Brilliant!!!!!!!
Marsha |
| skizzik |
Posted - 02/22/2010 : 16:08:45
quote:
Originally posted by RageSootheRatio
Maybe this might help? My tai chi teacher passed this along to me some time ago:
TRY SOFTER
A young boy traveled across Japan to the
school of a famous martial artist. When he
arrived at the dojo he was given an audience by
the sensei.
"What do you wish from me?" the
master asked.
"I wish to be your student and become
the finest karateka (karate student) in the land,"
the boy replied. "How long must I study?
“Ten years at least," the master answered.
"Ten years is a long time," said the boy.
"What if I studied twice as hard as all your
other students?"
"Twenty years," replied the master.
"Twenty years! What if I practice day and
night with all my effort?"
"Thirty years," was the master's reply.
"How is it that each time I say I will
work harder, you tell me that it will take
longer?" the boy asked.
"The answer is clear. When one eye is
fixed upon your destination, there is only one
eye left with which to find the Way."
—ANONYMOUS
Rage,
thats perfect! |
| RageSootheRatio |
Posted - 02/22/2010 : 15:03:37
Maybe this might help? My tai chi teacher passed this along to me some time ago:
TRY SOFTER
A young boy traveled across Japan to the
school of a famous martial artist. When he
arrived at the dojo he was given an audience by
the sensei.
"What do you wish from me?" the
master asked.
"I wish to be your student and become
the finest karateka (karate student) in the land,"
the boy replied. "How long must I study?
“Ten years at least," the master answered.
"Ten years is a long time," said the boy.
"What if I studied twice as hard as all your
other students?"
"Twenty years," replied the master.
"Twenty years! What if I practice day and
night with all my effort?"
"Thirty years," was the master's reply.
"How is it that each time I say I will
work harder, you tell me that it will take
longer?" the boy asked.
"The answer is clear. When one eye is
fixed upon your destination, there is only one
eye left with which to find the Way."
—ANONYMOUS |
| skizzik |
Posted - 02/22/2010 : 09:00:53
hopefully Hellny will post since he said he will when he has more time. He can put it in to words so nicely.
Also, if you read what lakevin used to say when he came to his conclusions.
It's just that when I was first cured by Sarno, there was no trying. He was just a beacon of light in a sea of doom and gloom. I just kept getting comfort from reading his books. I did'nt try, in fact I thought he was a bit out there telling me to yell at my brain, and resume all normalcy, but it was his conviction as an experienced MD that removed my pain I suppose. Without any pain, I still assumed I had a bad back, and was careful with it. I still kinda thought it mighta been a coincidence that the pain may have healed on it's own. But did'nt care.
When the relapse happened, I too "tried" with all my might. I read harder, I worked out harder, I refused to acknowledge it. I knew Sarno worked. But did he? I did'nt do any mantras, or force excercise on myself the first time. Then the second time I went crazy fighting it, trying, striving to be better. And no success at all. It just got worse and worse. My life would'nt become semi normal again till I stopped trying so hard.
I still grapple with it, but I think your'e post is convincing that the harder you try, the more pain you'll be in. How to "let go" of the pain is beyond me, other than It's a long process. I recall being so jealous of Hellny's, hillbilly's, flybynight's and lakev's success because they learned to let go earlier than I did.
Notice how you've thrown yourself into sarno treatment lock stock and barrel lately? You won't talk of your pain to friends, your'e journaling, your'e desperate to find issues, your'e trudging through. And I understand the trap your'e in believe me. And while I thought I was originally a book cure, looking back it was a process of letting go that I did'nt realize I was in untill hindsight set in. Oh, and about letting go, I don't think thats something you can "try" to do. How do you let go of anything? When you get a thought, and think "I'm going to let go of it", well, yeah, your'e still giving that thought attention. I think the answer is to be consumed something else till the mind literally forgets.
I guess the point of my post was that while I can't tell you what to do exactly for your pain, I can read what you write and give you my first inclination which is all your trying is building up major resistence. So perhaps, if others feel the same way, and post it, maybe you will get something out of it. |
| mala |
Posted - 02/22/2010 : 08:09:09
Skizz,
I don't get yr point. Are you TRYING to tell me something?
Good Luck & Good Health
Mala |
| skizzik |
Posted - 02/22/2010 : 08:02:00
quote:
Originally posted by mala
I think I have tried very hard to overcome
quote:
Originally posted by mala
Despite the pain I have tried doing everything as normally as possible
quote:
Originally posted by mala
Despite having MRIs & Xrays that show degeneration of the spine & knees I try to think of them as nothing but grey hairs like sarno tells us to.
quote:
Originally posted by mala
I shift & move and the pain never really leaves but god know I try.
quote:
Originally posted by mala
I try hard to ignore the pain
quote:
Originally posted by mala
I repudiate the physical & try to think psychological.
quote:
Originally posted by mala
I am trying not to be fearful about the pain.
quote:
Originally posted by mala
BUT THE FACT IS I AM IN WORSE PAIN THAN I WAS BEFORE.
 quit trying? |
| mala |
Posted - 02/21/2010 : 18:56:59
Thank you all for your responses.
Let me explain why I am asking for specific examples of how to overcome fear & conditioning.
I think I have tried very hard to overcome both. I have had constant pain(back, ribs, shoulder) nearly all of the time. It is like a very bad record which is scratchy & stuck but won't go away. Worse it is the same old tune. It is there 24/7 and has been for a long time.
Despite the pain I have tried doing everything as normally as possible .
Despite having MRIs & Xrays that show degeneration of the spine & knees I try to think of them as nothing but grey hairs like sarno tells us to.
I bend, I squat (did it yesterday to get a book from the lowest shelf), I walk, I travel, I sit even when it hurts to do so like now as I type. Heck I even learned to drive and passed my driving test first time round (which is no mean feat if you know HK traffic) last year at the ripe old age of 51. And I love to drive. No matter how much pain I'm in I will drive coz for a little while I can concentrate on the driving and forget about the pain.
I go to the cinema. It's not all enjoyable, I shift & move and the pain never really leaves but god know I try. I try hard to ignore the pain. I repudiate the physical & try to think psychological. I get on planes and travel and walk around grimacing in pain but saying to myself that it's OK.It's TMS. Yes I have that mantra too.
I meet up with friends and when they ask me about my back I say I'm good and let's not talk about it.
BUT THE FACT IS I AM IN WORSE PAIN THAN I WAS BEFORE.
I have been conditioning myself to believe that there is nothing wrong with me. If I was fearful I wouldn't bend, squat do the things I'm not suppose to.
Despite doing all this the pain not only gets worse but now I have knee pain. Is this a symptom imperative? I don't know. I thought that the pain shifted from one place to another. Well it hasn't shifted it HAS become worse.
Now if I had no knowledge that it was TMS and the pain got worse and spread to other parts, it would be OK but I'm aware and still it is getting worse. So naturally I'm concerned that perhaps I do have osteoarthritis in my spine & knees & that I am making things worse.
So I want to know what other people have been doing . That's the whole point of having a forum. To ask specific questions & get specific answers. It helps believe me & I am getting a lot out of your responses.
I have been journaling as you know and even though it's been insightful I haven't actually been able to get rid of the pain but I also know that with so many issues it will take time.
Guej, I also agree that monitoring every moment of pain is OTT and I am trying to change my thought process about my perception of pain.
RSR it is great to know that your body is now in better shape than ever. That gives me hope too.
HellNY Thx for the info on systematic desensitization.I am having huge problems with fear & frustration as nothing seems to be working for me at the moment even though I am trying not to be fearful about the pain.
I am also not on any meds at the moment but I plan to take something mild. I tried Neurontin 5 yrs ago. It was horrible and actually made me feel worse. I also put on 10 pounds which I eventually managed to get rid off.
Good Luck & Good Health
Mala |
| guej |
Posted - 02/21/2010 : 08:20:06
Great response HellNY. I used the Fred Amir book over the summer, and re-engaged in activities that I never thought I would ever do again, and that I feared tremendously (running, biking, swimming, lifting weights). Amir's program worked great at first. I set weekly goals and as I checked off each one, I felt such a sense of satisfaction and victory. It really felt like I was taking my life back. I was still in pain, but by the end of the summer, I could run without pain, and if I felt pain later, I knew it was only a conditioned response and 2 days later, everything was back to normal.
Where I stumbled was tracking my progress too closely, never giving myself a break, and never being satisfied with my progress. Like you said, if you monitor your minutes of activity and pain levels too closely, you're focusing too much on it. If I hit my goal of running for 20 minutes, I didn't stop to think "wow, that's great". Instead, my immediate thought was "I used to be able to run for an hour without any issues. Keep pushing...". By October I incurred a minor achilles injury, and the fear and frustration that followed set off a major relapse in my overall pain that has lasted for months. Only in the past few weeks am I finally turning this around again. I now exercise without tracking my progress. If I have a bad day where I don't do as much as I did the last time, I don't beat myself up or feel permanently defeated. This conditioned pain response took time and really took a hold of me. De-conditioning is not going to happen overnight for me. Caring a lot less about the details is what is working for me now. It took a lot of ups and downs to get to this place, but I've learned a lot about how the mind works and I'm not quite as fearful as I used to be. Good luck. Relax a bit and takes things slowly. |
| RageSootheRatio |
Posted - 02/21/2010 : 08:18:45
Mala, I don't know if this will help or not, but here's an example. (I was on daily meds for 2+ years for my "sinus headaches" and had tried to stop the meds at other times before I heard of Dr Sarno's work, but always promptly went back on because I felt I HAD to because of the pain, even though, despite the meds!! I was still having very chronic pain!!!)
Anyway, here is a little excerpt from my journal (several years ago now!) which may shed some light:
---------
".. so when I wake up with a headache I don't think the same things - ordinarily I would panic a little - and feel bad - like groan, ANOTHER BLASTED HEADACHE and feel thwarted. Now there's a different thought process entirely! It goes like this. "hmm. Another headache. I don't have to sweat this. Think psychological." And then Sarno kind of made it safe for me - he normalizes all my feelings [I was referring to the rage and sadness I had started to feel] and validates them and offers me a HUGE payoff [I was referring to freedom from pain there]...
---------
Then as I recall, when I felt a headache starting I would try to sit down right then and start writing out a list of "my pressures and worries" and I started to be able to ABORT the headaches that way. I would have a headache, start writing, and then the headache would be gone probably within the hour or less of the writing. This was of course, VERY heartening. I couldn't do it (abort the headache) ALL the time, and when I couldn't, I would take pain killers if I needed to, but I was able to do it enough times that I really started having confidence this was going to work for me. About 6 weeks later, I stopped taking my daily sinus meds cold turkey and have never looked back.
Another thing that helped during that time, was reading the emails from "Rachel's RSI homage to Dr John Sarno" page
http://podolsky.everybody.org/rsi/emails.html
especially this line:
you already got your life back. you can do WHATEVER you want. ANYTHING. the only thing left to do is to get rid of the discomfort. and that can take as long as it needs to. don't
stress about it.
----
On thinking about this, I think that my having some early success at aborting a pain episode started giving me the confidence and reassurance I needed to go farther. I didn't know if this was going to work for me ... It made sense to me; I was excited that it might work; I started to have HOPE and yet I also thought it did sound "too good to be true" ... and so I wasn't ready to *believe* all at once and I was just reading the books (no official TMS dx) ... so I still needed some "proof" in a way. Even though I didn't have any of the "fancier" journaling techniques that I have now, I just started writing "my lists", mainly and started to write the "essays" that Dr Sarno recommended about my stressors. Once I started having success aborting headaches, I got more and more confident, but it was a gradual process.
OVER TIME:
• My fear about the pain never going away ... went away! When I get a headache these days, I just think to myself, "oh, I have a headache. I'd like it to go away." and then I relax or take a break from what I'm doing and it almost always DOES goes away by itself! If it doesn't, then I take a pain killer. I don't stress about it much.
• My fear that the pain will get worse: In the beginning, if the writing did not abort the pain and I was worried it would get worse, I would say to myself, well if I still have a headache in half an hour (or whatever) I will take some medication.
• Fear that the body will never quite recover or be as healthy as before.
I'm not sure I had that specific fear, but my body is probably better now that it has ever been !!
I guess in summary, for me the process of "belief" came gradually, as I was able to have more and more success in aborting specific pain episodes. (I was also trying to shift the rage SOOTHE ratio more deliberately at the time, so not sure how much that contributed ... it was probably more *indirectly* helpful, in the sense that I could not correlate more "soothing" in my life to helping a particular headache. I suppose in the present, that relaxing when I get a headache and aborting my headaches that way is more directly correlated.)
Good luck!
RSR
|
| HellNY |
Posted - 02/21/2010 : 05:48:34
Mala -
I will post mine when I have more time, but you can also see my earlier posts. I overcame the fear conditioning patterns to a very large extent. I used to take 900mg of neurontina day plus 150 mg of Ultram a day. I had considerable pain. Now I take NO meds and have 10% of the pain I used to have. But its really not "here is what I did." Its more "here is what I stopped doing." I stopped worrying and fearing. I stopped caring about the pain because I truly realized it wasnt really my spine. THATS what I "did." The pain gradually subsided over a year or so. All the while I started doing the things I used to avoid, like driving longer distances andcomputer work. When the pain came on, I would take a break, but not feel defeated. Just realizing that it would take time. Over time my tolerance for activities improved. If you want more specific, I'm not sure HOW to be more specific than that. I would have to have written a journal where it said "day 47, drove 3 miles and no pain," and then "day 92, driving tolerance up to 20 miles," etc etc. I didnt do it like that. In fact, that would have involved excessive monitoring of my activities AND my "pain response" and the latter is something that you do not want to "monitor" because that gives it attention and fuel.
--- but, you can look at the literature on systematic desensitization and its exactly the process that I engaged in, that Fred Amir engaged in, and others.
If you want an example that already exists for something quite similar, look at the way tinnitus is treated. Tinnitus Retraining Therapy. The principle is exacty the same. Just substitute "pain" for "ringing in the ears." It will contain the kind of active, prescribed and operationalized terms you are looking for.
My lingering concern here is that, inside your demand for specifics from people, I sense a great deal of fear and frustration in your message. As long as your fear and frustration remain, as long as you continue to feel those emotions, it will be very difficult to be successful. Because teh success comes in losing those feelings and only AFTER that will the pain abate. These are fuel for the pain and visa versa. You cant control the pain cmponent but you can control the emotional component. This is the core of systematic desensitization --- is being able to do the activities in small amounts WITHOUT the associated negative emotions -- that gradually deconditions teh activities from the bad feelings associated with them.
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| mala |
Posted - 02/21/2010 : 04:57:14
Gibbon, BRILLIANT - finally the kind of response I was looking for. Specifically an example of what YOU did to break the conditioning process.
I understand the theory, i can almost recite it by heart and I think most of the people who have read Sarno do too but what I think is lacking are real examples of what people did to break the fear & conditioning. No generalizations , real life, personal examples like 'this is what I did and this is what happened to me'.
Fred Amir's book is probably the best book that does this sort of thing.
Sachin thanks. You said
quote:
Regarding my own case, I was hating so many peoples\ friends earlier. Hating people is also conditioning. I removed all this hate from my heart and now there is no hate to anybody in my heart. I love all people and result is peace
Why did you hate so many people & how did you remove the hate. Was it thru meditation?
Good Luck & Good Health
Mala |
| Gibbon |
Posted - 02/21/2010 : 03:14:07
An example
When suffering from RSI, I went swimming for 30 minutes. Felt ok. Then over the next few hours a gradual and progressive pain took hold of both elbows to the extent they were massively inflamed - very severe pain which lasted many hours.
Understandably I didn't go swimming again for a long time! Then I was on holiday at the beach - i really wanted to go swimming. So, I figured it must have been the fact i'd been swimming breaststroke. So I splashed around a bit, did a bit of sculling on my back. Only for a minutes. Then, exactly the same symptom progression as before. By evening it was agony again. I was so miserable about this.
Then fast forward to sarno (only about 6 weeks later). I wrote one of my goals at the start of my TMS course with Georgie as being able to swim with no pain. And gave myself 6 weeks to achieve this. I I bought membership of a local gym. I started visualising myself swimming pain free. I started doing the swimming motion in front of a mirror (lol bet that looked silly...)
and then I went swimming. Deep breaths. And afterwards? Yep, the pain was there as before - maybe not as bad as before but still very unpleasant.
So, i emailed Georgie, asking why the pain was still there. She replied saying that the pain was just emotional. Now, this really annoyed me! But then i thought, why? Why am I getting annoyed by someone saying what I'm supposedly buying into? I was still half in the mindset of defensiveness about my symptoms being "real" - about having a physical cause. And here i was, having done a physical activity, with pain - cause and effect no?
The next day, having done more journaling, really more accepting of the TMS idea I went swimming again. Every stroke i took i repeated the mantra "TMS is real, the pain is just emotional." And, no pain. None. I went swimming everyday for the next 2 months.
For me there wasn't a clearer example of pain conditioning than this amongst all my symptoms. Without Sarno it's not an exageration to say I may never have gone swimming again.
1) An activity "causes" pain
2)You fear that activity. The next time you do it, the stress levels rise, you have a heightened sensitivity. You feel more pain.
3) You avoid that activity. It becomes a bigger and bigger issue in your life.
That's the cycle.....
Check out the TMS website: www.rsi-backpain.co.uk |
| catspine |
Posted - 02/21/2010 : 00:47:15
From Mala quote:
It would seem that Fear & Conditioning are the 2 main stumbling blocks really for most people with Tms.I know they are for me.
Fear that the pain will never go away
Fear that the pain will get worse
Fear that the body will never quite recover or be as healthy as before
We are also conditioned to believe the above & much more.
It is very hard to believe that all this searing, burning, debilitating pain which is causing me to limp around in agony will all go one day and not leave any trace.
Mala what we are mostly conditioned to be is: either to be in the past or in the future where fear thrives but hardly ever in the present moment which of course is where fear can not take place.
However it is more easy than you imagine to get rid of conditioning all you need is to know what you'll replace it with for you can only destroy totally that you can replace.
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